Caption: the comet NEAT in 2003,
meeting up with a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun.

Apr. 25, 2006Comet Neat and CME's

When a coronal mass ejection greeted Comet NEAT, space scientists
called it a “coincidence”. But in an electric universe such events
deserve a second look.

The comet NEAT
was discovered November 2002 by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking
(NEAT) program. As the comet moved toward “perihelion”, its closest
approach to the Sun, astronomers were not sure it would survive. The
explosive destruction of
Comet Linear three
years earlier, at nine times NEAT’s distance from the
Sun, underscored the danger to comets from such a close passage
around the Sun.

The Sun’s
glare prevented observers on Earth from viewing NEAT’s approach. But
the
SOHO
spacecraft, stationed between Earth and the Sun, has an
instrument called Large-Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO),
which blocks the Sun’s brightest light, permitting the satellite to
record the comet’s dramatic swing around the Sun.

As NEAT raced
through the extended solar atmosphere, a large coronal mass ejection
(CME) exploded from the Sun and appeared to strike the comet. The
comet responded with a “kink” that propagated down the tail. A video
clip of the event can be seen
here.
(The disk in the center
is created by the coronograph as it blocks the Sun’s glare). For
astronomers, the event illustrated the dynamic interactions between
comets and the solar wind.

Scientists
were quick to point out that meeting with ejected material was a
“chance encounter”. But was it? Though electrical theorists assert
no interpretation of the event at this time, they reject the
theoretical assumptions that prompt mainstream theorists to dismiss
out of hand any possibility that a comet could trigger an eruption
from the Sun. If the Sun is a glow discharge at the center of an
electric field, and a comet carries a strong negative charge
together with a vast envelope of charged particles, the categorical
dismissal of mutual interactions is premature.

In fact, SOHO
has recorded several instances of comets plunging into the solar
corona in “coincidental” association with CMEs.
Here
we see two comets grazing the Sun followed by a particularly energetic
blast from a mass ejection. Another instance of two comets grazing
the Sun can be viewed
here.

In a headline
story, “Twin Comets Race To Death By Fire”, June 5, 1998,
ScienceDaily.com reported:

“In a
spectacular coincidence, a coronal mass ejection (CME) accompanied
by an erupting prominence occurred on the southwest limb of the Sun
within hours after the destruction of the comets. The CME and
prominence were probably unrelated to the comets, being instead the
product of weeks of intense magnetic activity in that region of the
Sun”.

Perhaps the
original source of this story (apparently a science writer with
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center), paid dearly for his use of the
word “probably” in the above paragraph. Only an electrical influence
could justify any qualifications to the assertion of a “spectacular
coincidence”. But the scientific mainstream allows for no electric
force outside the Sun to have any influence on the Sun’s atmospheric
behavior.

SOHO
scientists make the point explicit in their discussion of sungrazing
comets and CME’s:

“A popular
misconception is that sungrazing comets cause solar flares and CMEs
(coronal mass ejections). While it is true that we have observed
bright comets approach the Sun immediately before CME's/flares,
there is absolutely no connection between the two events. The sungrazer comets -- in fact all comets -- are completely
insignificant in size compared the Sun”.

The statement
is reasonable if the issue of “connection” and influence is decided
by relative size. But from an electrical viewpoint the disregard for
the powerful electric force in space is the greatest single mistake
in the theoretical sciences today. How would an electric Sun respond
to the approach of a relatively small but strongly charged object?
Comets typically display a bright coma extending for hundreds of
thousands of miles around the hidden nucleus. They can also entrain
an immense envelope of hydrogen gas. We do not normally see the
hydrogen envelopes of comets because Earth’s atmosphere absorbs
their light. But spacecraft can detect them and measure them.
Electrical theorists suggest that the ability of larger comets to
hold their hydrogen clouds in place against the solar wind is a good
indicator of the comet’s powerful charge.

The influence
of the comet’s electrical field is far more significant than its
trivial mass in relation to the Sun. What will occur electrically if
the charge plasma or “atmosphere” of the comet penetrates the
insulating
double layer
of the Sun’s plasma sheath? An
analogy might be the effect of a pebble from space penetrating into
the upper atmosphere of the Earth where the intruder’s plasma trail
short circuits the Earth’s electric field to cause a high altitude
discharge. The issue has virtually nothing to do with the respective
masses of the Earth and the pebble. The disturbing image of the
space shuttle
Columbia
being struck by a discharge that
followed its plasma trail through the upper atmosphere also comes to
mind.

Perhaps the observation of Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvén, the father of plasma
cosmology, can put the issue in context. It was his opinion that
coronal mass ejections are caused by a breakdown or breach of the
Sun’s double layer—an event that provokes an explosive exchange
between the insulated plasma cell of the Sun and the plasma of
surrounding space.

For
the electric theorists, such questions deserve conscientious
investigation, with attention to the electrical phenomena indicated
in both solar and cometary behavior.
__________________________________________________________________________

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